The present invention relates to electric power steering systems for automobiles, and, more particularly, to a distributed control architecture for electric steering systems.
Electric power steering systems currently known in the art generally include, among other things, such components such as: torque and position sensing mechanisms, electronic control mechanisms, electric steering motors, mechanical reduction gearing and wiring, all of which are typically located within a steering column assembly. While these steering control systems may be characterized as modular, centralized or self-contained, they do not easily lend themselves to future development of electric steering systems as part of an overall total chassis control system, in which other chassis subsystems may be interconnected and controlled through a communications bus.
Electric steering system products are capable of sharing only limited amounts of information. Furthermore, the electric steering systems are not easily functionally integrated with non-chassis systems such as a global positioning system (GPS) or a multimedia system.
The above identified drawbacks of the prior art are alleviated by the invention described herein. In one embodiment, a chassis control network architecture has an electronic control module mountable on a steering column subassembly. A first communications bus is connected to the electronic control module and an actuator control module is in communication with the electronic control module, through the first communications bus. The actuator control module is further connected to an electric steering motor, and is capable of receiving a steering input command from the electronic control module and applying it to the electric steering motor.
In a preferred embodiment, the first communications bus provides data interface between motor vehicle chassis systems and the second communications bus provides data interface between non-chassis systems.